Addiction usually leaves a wake of chaos, and all kinds of casualties
- marriages, jobs, health. Most tragically, the current crisis of
opioid addiction (to prescription painkillers and heroin) in Rhode
Island has cost too many lives. Well over 160 Rhode Islanders have died
from accidental opioid overdoses so far this year. Hundreds more might
have joined them had it not been for the rescue drug naloxone.

Unforeseen consequence
But
here's another unforeseen consequence of this epidemic of opioid
addiction: hepatitis C. There's been a surge in new users of injection
drugs, mainly heroin. Along with it, the CDC reports a surge of new
cases of hepatitis C. I spoke with the head of the CDC's division of
viral hepatitis, Dr. John Ward, who told me that epidemiologists are
still trying to get a handle on this surge. But he called it a new
epidemic.